Meaner Girls

Thanks to the Internet, high schooljust got way more cruel.

Fuck u carrie!!

Ur 100% slut! And u like to play w/ur self! IN CLASS, AT LUNCH, AND BY UR SELF!!!

The schoolyard has always been about rumors and name-calling. But as technology tweaks the way we work, shop and breed, so, too, does it revolutionize the writing on the bathroom wall.

And although Web log software has been helping people create online journals for several years, for some reason the adolescent set has ferociously adopted one diarylike breakthrough in particular: Xanga.com.

Created by New Yorker John Hiler in 1999, the software has in the past year become the blogging system of choice for the underage, who post entries on hyperpersonalized Web pages; Kansas City schoolkids use the sites to post song lyrics, log prosaic daily activities, or write intensely personal stuff.

I finally did it.

It wasn't what I expected, but I did it.

Part of the appeal is its user-friendliness. Xanga's most basic personal pages cost nothing to create, and its template makes easy work of changing fonts and colors, posting photographs, playing songs or movie clips, and splashing text banners across the screen.

Xanga is so easy to learn that a sixth-grader at the Shawnee Mission School District's Broken Arrow Elementary School was told he could face charges from the Johnson County district attorney for a "threatening" post he made on his blog about a teacher in early February. (Sources from the DA's office, however, tell the Pitch they doubt that prosecutors will pursue the matter.)

Other Web scribblings have school administrators and parents scrambling to find ways to deal with the caustic things their children say. Xanga pages have prompted warnings to parents in Shawnee Mission school newsletters. Shawnee Mission PTAs have sponsored seminars to advise parents how to monitor and control their children's online social lives. Many schools have blocked or banned Xanga from their computer labs.

But Xanga continues to grow, and one reason may be because it's so easy to access. Unlike other online Web communities, logging onto someone's Xanga site generally doesn't require a password. All it takes is typing www.xanga.com/, followed by the person's Xanga moniker. You don't have to be someone's "friend" to log a comment on a site, as on some other networking sites; you only have to have a page of your own. Type in www.xanga.com/better_than_love, for example, to check out a couple of local high schoolers who take photos of each other staring, pouty-lipped, into the camera like extras from The OC.Or try www.xanga.com/PsychoDellic to read a boy's ode to the pipe that a friend's dad discarded.

Xanga also is popular with KC teens because of its blog rings, which link sites with common themes -- movies, TV shows, hobbies. Other rings link students from the same school. ***P@SEO KrEw KILL$$!***, for example, connects bloggers who attend Paseo Academy.

For kids, navigating Xanga pages is a lot like walking through the halls at school. You put up your page and open yourself up to commentary. How you portray yourself can win you friends and enemies.

Brian is a junior at Lee's Summit North High Schoolwho is harshly critical of what people say about themselves in their personal profiles. His blog ring, Mall Metal Enemies, denounces Jncos (a clothing brand known for baggy jeans), wallet chains, wrist bands, mesh hats, eyebrow rings, XXL T-shirts, Juggalos (fans of the band Insane Clown Posse), Korn, dyed hair, fishnets ("unless intent on catching some form of aquatic creature"), excessive eyeliner, bad haircuts and button-up "fire/dragon/barbed wire/anime shirts."

"Be offended, then kill yourself," a message on the blog ring advises.

On a weekday afternoon in his father's study, Brian hangs out in sweatpants and deftly navigates his Xanga site, nothing_but_enemies. The site features his hardcore band's name in huge letters ("Come Undone") and a picture of himself, eyes shut, microphone in fist, singing at a show. "In a street fight, my xanga will kick your xanga's ass," his site proclaims.

The appeal of Xanga, he says, is that it grants the ability to harass others. "I hate this kid," Brian says, tapping the thumbnail picture of a teen who left a comment on his site. "He's a Hot Topic kid who thinks he's so unique. But he's different just like everyone else is when they're trying to be different. They're all into Dance Dance Revolution and anime, and they're oblivious to the fact that they suck."

Brian's attacks have garnered him several threats. "Tons of kids say they want to fight me," he says, laughing. "I say, OK, here's how it will go. We'll both show up somewhere and hit each other, and maybe you will win or maybe I'll win. But when we get back up, you're still going to suck, so I still win. Either way. Fighting is stupid, though."

Brian says he has a special disdain for some Xanga users who write about cutting themselves or contemplating suicide.

"I make fun of those kids," Brian says. "It's like, who wants to read all of that when you could just go get a therapist. And some people are so lame, their posts are full of 'I got so messed up this weekend, and I had sex with this girl, I don't even remember her name.' It's so lame, I don't understand those people. They're just lame kids."